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By Marta Maretich

Energy is set to be a key global concern for the foreseeable future—and to continue to be an important focus for impact and sustainable investors. In this, the first in a two-part series on the new energy landscape, Marta Maretich explores the factors shaping the landscape and highlights some promising sectors for investment in energy.
Investment in the energy sector is set to boom over the coming years. The reasons behind this are well known, especially to environmentally conscious investors: Fossil fuels are becoming scarcer, energy costs are rising, levels of industrialization are increasing, as is global prosperity -- bringing increased demand for energy as well as unwanted side effects from its use, like pollution.

Recent findings about climate change are also driving a renewed interest in energy. A series of reports from the IPCC are shining a light on the urgent need to change the way we use energy as well as the types of energy we use. According its recent report, energy is responsible for 47 percent of the increase in anthropogenic (man-made) CO2 emissions—fossil fuel byproducts linked to climate change. High carbon-intensity energy, related to economic growth in developing countries, is an important contributor.

A changing climate for investment

These statistics mean that energy use is set to become an important front in the battle against runaway climate change. The U.N. is currently using them to inform its process of forging a new international convention on climate change. When this framework emerges in 2015, this in turn will have implications for investors as governments react by establishing new policies, setting regulation and, probably, funneling more public money into mitigation measures. Whether or not you accept the idea of man-made climate change, there’s little doubt that the IPCC’s reports will affect the outlook for investing in the energy sector.

All these factors—plus the fact that new technologies and approaches are proliferating—are making energy a focus for investors of all kinds, despite the fact that some alternative energy markets have proven volatile in the past. Today there are more ways to invest in energy than ever before and everyone seems to be looking for the technologies that will replace fossil fuels in our investment portfolios as well as our economies. Fortunately, there’s increased scope for investing as the clean and green energy market continues its path of growth and diversification.

Developments in recent years seem to indicate that there won’t be a single solution to the energy question. It’s more probable that there will be a wide array of approaches that form a patchwork of solutions for different applications. Many of these will be local, rooted in culture and geography, and investors who know how to spot an opportunity at the local level will reap the benefits, as will those who know how to support energy businesses as they scale up and roll out products and services on a wider basis.

Sticking with renewables

Solar power, wind power and hydroelectric generation businesses have long been staples in impact and sustainable investment portfolios. Global growth in the uptake of these technologies has been significant and the demand for renewable power continues to skyrocket. Impact capital has played a role in bringing clean technologies forward and introducing them into new markets. As a result, renewables now represent an evolved market and continue to have strong returns.

Against this background, investors like Triodos with its renewable energy fund, have already garnered considerable experience in investing in diverse energy solutions including hydroelectric, wind and solar. Others, like the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have been instrumental in financing specific energy technologies to fit local needs in countries as diverse as China, Mexico and Egypt.

With future outlooks positive, especially in light of advances such as new approaches to managing existing grids and new technologies coming online to improve energy storage thus making wind power more viable, these sectors remain good bets as we move into 2014.

Read more about high potential energy investments for impact and sustainable investors in The New Energy Landscape Part II: Growth Areas for Impact and Sustainable Energy Investment.

Image credit: lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo

About the author: Marta Maretich writes about impact, sustainable and social investing for Maximpact.com, a deal listing portal and information hub for the new finance sector. She is Chief Editor of the Maximpact blog. @maximpactdotcom

About Maximpact: Maximpact is a free global portal for the social, impact and sustainability sectors. It operates as a secure web-based listing service that allows sustainability, philanthropy and CSR professionals, as well as entrepreneurs, intermediaries, and funds to share information about initiatives and impact investment deals, online. For more information on the platform or to review latest impact projects visit: www.maximpact.com. This article first appeared on Maximpact’s blog.

May 4-5, a special two-day, high-level United Nations meeting -- "Abu Dhabi Ascent" -- will convene in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with the aim "to reinvigorate government and private sector actions needed to seriously address global climate change."

The conference was formally announced in February by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and United Arab Emirates Minister of State and Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, and it will gather global leaders from government, the private sector and civil society. The meeting is in advance of the U.N. Secretary General's Climate Summit 2014, being held on September 23 in New York, "in an effort to bolster and catalyze climate action proposals."

Abu Dhabi Ascent will focus on nine high-impact areas including energy efficiency, land use and forests, finance, renewable energy, agriculture, resilience, transportation, short-lived climate pollutants, and cities. The meeting will also explore international and multi-stakeholder efforts that support ambitious on-the-ground actions.

Both Abu Dhabi Ascent and Climate Summit 2014 are precursors to the 2015 U.N. FCCC Climate Change Conference in Paris where a global, binding climate agreement will be negotiated, and as such, aim to drive political will and action in advance of the 2015 conference.

TriplePundit will be at Abu Dhabi Ascent as a guest of Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's strategic investment company. Masdar is currently delivering nearly 1 gigawatt of renewable energy to international grids, meaning that, "Today the UAE is the only OPEC nation supplying both hydrocarbons and renewable energy to the international market" according to Dr. Al Jaber. In addition, Masdar has also embarked on a journey to build the world's most sustainable city, just outside Abu Dhabi, forming a "greenprint" for how cities can accommodate for rapid urbanization, while also dramatically reducing energy, water and waste. (For a look inside Masdar City, check out this video tour and photo essay.)

The conference comes at a time when, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, for the entire month of April 2014, levels of CO2 exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time. In the report, a Stanford atmospheric scientist and environmental engineer, Mark Z. Jacobson, is quoted as saying, "The rise of carbon dioxide levels above 400 parts per million is an indicator that the problem of global warming is getting worse not better," adding, " we need to focus on solutions to this problem, namely converting to wind, water and solar power for all purposes."

Please follow along with us as we report from the conference May 4-5.

Follow me on Twitter: @PhilCovBlog

Editor's Note: This is the first post in a two-part series examining how Michigan cities are adopting sustainable energy efficiency platforms to recover from the economic downturn. Stay tuned for the second installment, which looks at Holland, Ann Arbor and other Michigan cities.

By Dr. Haris Alibašić

In an era of remitting financial crisis, cities seek a multitude of venues to reduce cost and to embrace strategies for financial resiliency. Michigan was one of the states on the receiving end of the economic downturn. Cities and local governments in Michigan felt the brunt of the financial distress. Several cities sought to address revenue losses and cuts in the state portion of funding for local governments through building an effective and efficient energy platform. In addition to creating more sustainable and increasingly resilient communities, the pursuit of a sustainable energy platform continues to be of high priority to several cities in Michigan.

Energy is the common denominator for many communities. Michigan organizations interested in advancing a joint energy agenda would be best served in joining efforts to try and influence decision makers and policies at the state level. While it is evident that several similar platforms have been used, there are also significant differences between these cities. The cities of Grand Rapids, Holland, and Ann Arbor, Mich. are few of those local governments, which using varying utilized energy strategies to not only cut costs, but also attempted to increase the renewable energy in their portfolio. Common elements to these three cities' strategies were:

• Building awareness and education of the importance of energy to the organization and community, internally and externally;


• Razor sharp focus on energy efficiency and energy conservation;


• Some level of renewable energy investments or pursuit of renewables.

The following provides an overview of these elements for these three cities.  Some common elements apply to other cities in the state.

Grand Rapids sustainable energy platform

The city of Grand Rapids does not own its own electric utility. However, energy is a large cost driver for the entire organization, and by effectively addressing energy costs the city tries to ensure savings for its operations. Notably, increased electricity costs and decreased renewable energy costs have made return on investment for renewable energy more economically and financially feasible.  To achieve the most energy and to integrate this work into larger sustainability goals, Grand Rapids took a more systemic and strategic triple bottom line approach to energy efficiency.

Using internal resources through the organization, the city staff built a significant level of awareness to promote energy efficiency and use energy as an opportunity to include in the asset management and capital planning.  Externally, the efforts were focused on creating a sustainable platform for energy audits in neighborhoods and tools to increase energy performance in homes. The city organized the sustainable energy team, which consists of staff from various departments involved in energy management decisions relative to energy use in city-owned facilities, fleets or equipment. All types of energy use are analyzed, including natural gas, steam, electricity and fuel. The team incorporated a large cross-section of staff from across city departments.

In line with transformation investment strategy, staff from Water, Environmental Services, Facilities, Fire and Economic Development departments joined to develop a sustainable energy plan to serve as a blueprint document to be updated regularly as technologies evolve and budgets warrant. It presented opportunities to select strategies to consume energy more efficiently, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, bring down energy and fuel use, lower energy costs and support efforts to meet the renewable energy target of 100 percent by 2020.  The energy strategy was built on the principles of reducing electricity and natural gas consumption and costs, reducing transportation-related fuel consumption, and meeting renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions targets.

Ultimately, the purpose of the plan is to provide sound policy guidance for future energy planning, good asset management of energy assets, buildings and facilities, and tools for effective management of energy and transportation needs for the city.

Efforts to reduce energy consumption continue to pay annual dividends

As noted in the city's most recent Sustainability Progress Report, since 2011 Grand Rapids has reduced energy consumption by an average of 1.2 percent annually, and has continuously implemented energy efficiency projects on city-owned buildings which has helped lower the overall consumption of energy. However, as with virtually all other goods, the price of electricity has gradually risen over the years. This increase in energy prices has created a net increase in energy expenses for the organization, even with a lower overall energy consumption. In FY2009, the use of electricity in city-owned buildings totaled approximately 106 million kWh. The total usage of electricity in city facilities in FY2013 was 100.7 million kWh -- a 5 percent drop, but energy costs increased by 6 percent over the same period.

Energy efficiency efforts are in line with targets in the Sustainability Plan and Transformation Investment Plan, and energy and cost savings support the investments. Annualized avoided cost from energy efficiency improvements were in excess of $300,000.  Further electricity savings of over $250,000 were achieved in recent years with the use of grants, energy optimization rebates, savings and one-time investments.

Externally, the city focused on a partnership with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council to use grant funding for energy audits in six neighborhoods through the Better Building for Michigan program. Ultimately, a total of 1,925 homes had energy assessments performed, with some level of energy efficiency improvements made for homeowners who participated in the program.

With respect to renewable energy, 25.8 percent of Grand Rapids’ electricity comes from renewable sources, and the city even made the Environmental Protection Agency’s Top 30 Local Governments Green Power Partnership list.  The city is purchasing more than 25 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually and producing onsite with solar panel projects.  The city has also installed geothermal at fire stations and have sought actively to install LED lighting in operations whenever it made financial sense.  A solar deployment project at the Water Administration building is producing 30 percent more electricity than originally projected, and the Water Department will benefit directly from electricity used onsite and sold back to the grid.

Image credit: Flickr/stevan

Haris Alibašić directs the City of Grand Rapids’ Office of Energy and Sustainability and teaches courses and workshops in the Graduate Certificate in Sustainability program at Grand Valley State University. Haris holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration.  He may be reached at halibasi at grcity.us

Monsanto isn’t a name that many readers associate with the sustainability movement. With so much focus on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), discussions and news about its sustainability commitments and strategies often get passed up.  But yesterday, as part of the 2014 Walmart Sustainability Expo, Monsanto’s CEO Hugh Grant announced two new sustainability commitments for the world’s largest agricultural chemical and biotech company. Rightfully, it believes that implementing new sustainability goals in the following two areas will not only help streamline its own overhead costs, but also contribute to U.S. and global efforts to conserve water and reduce carbon emissions.

Monsanto’s water resources

Agricultural irrigation requires significant water resources often in regions with a less than regular supply. An estimated 70 percent of the world’s water sources are committed to agricultural irrigation, according to Aquastat, the water information system of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). North America is one of the largest users of agricultural irrigation, FAO finds. Although it uses a smaller percentage of its water resources for irrigation compared to most regions, its access to freshwater resources for irrigation dwarfs most areas of the planet -- leading to a generous percentage of water used for irrigation purposes.

With that in mind, Monsanto has set a goal of reducing its overall water usage by 25 percent by 2020. While it admits that water usage will vary according to seasonal weather patterns each year, the company said it believes it can reduce its water usage by between 30 billion and 89 billion gallons annually.

It will implement these changes not only on its owned and leased properties, but also on contract farms that grow the company’s seed products. One of the areas it said it will be making changes is in its irrigation methods. The company figures it can improve its water conservation by converting to drip irrigation, something it said it is already doing in resource-impacted areas like India, Mexico and Hawaii.

Nutrient efficiency changes

According to Grant, Monsanto sees its pioneer efforts in “smart seeds” as not only a way to improve the nutritional value of its product, but also to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The company will do this in part by creating new ways to “work and share with farmer customers, stakeholders, industry groups and partners” that will “help accelerate these efficiencies,” Grant said. Monsanto has already started working with the National Corn Growers Association’s Soil Health Partnership to develop new strategies to improve soil health and water quality.

Projected sustainability goals for Monsanto

With all of the heightened focus on potential GMO labeling legislation now threading its way through state and federal courts, it’s hard not to ask why Monsanto has chosen this week to release announcements of its new goals. The company has set itself a relatively short deadline to master water conservation of a fairly high magnitude. One plausible reason for choosing a goal of 2020 is that it coincides with the first benchmark given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for curbing global carbon emissions and addressing global warming. In this perspective, Monsanto’s efforts offer much-needed leadership for improved water use, water conservation and decreasing carbon emissions.

One question that was asked during the presentation was whether Monsanto’s “smarter seeds” will be engineered to allow growers to “reuse” the seeds, which would cut down on overhead for those farmers its sustainability efforts support.

Grant noted that one of the reasons reuse hasn’t been a characteristic of the company's product is that they believe using new, clean, fresh seeds improves maximum yield capacity and quality. He said a primary focus of the company is to develop seeds that have better drought tolerance, a real concern with climate change, according to the IPCC.

“I think if you look over the next five to 10 years, [there will be] better soil management; [there will be] better agronomics … And continuing to deliver better performing seeds to growers, that’s really the focus,” Grant said.

I also asked him whether Climate Corp., which Monsanto purchased last year, would be playing a role in the company’s sustainability goals. While Climate Corp. wasn’t headlined in this announcement, Monsanto said that it will play an instrumental role in tailoring water usage and crop management, two vital issues when dealing with day-by-day climate changes such as we have seen recently in agricultural areas.

“There’s tremendous opportunity ahead in this area,” Grant said.

Monsanto said it plans to update the public on a quarterly basis as it moves closer to meeting its 2020 sustainability goals.

Image of farmer in soybean field: United Soybean Board

By  Jürgen Hase

Cities today are in danger of choking in smog. They may only make up 2 percent of the world’s surface area, but they account for up to 70 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and rising urban populations make matters worse. Are smart cities the solution?

In China and India, driving bans are imposed due to smog on a regular basis. Paris followed suit in March, and other European cities are also considering drastic moves to deal with downtown atmospheric pollution. They have good reason for doing so. Urban growth around the world is unabated. According to U.N. estimates, 3.6 billion people lived in cities in 2011. By 2050, experts estimate that number will rise to around 6.25 billion.

This poses enormous challenges for municipal administrations, especially in terms of public infrastructure. Is sustainable coexistence even possible in conurbations of this size? Is a total driving ban the only way to come to grips with smog? City planners do not want these matters to come to pass, and that is why they are looking for alternative solutions such as the smart city.

Parking guidance systems reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions

The smart city is controlled by integrated information and communication technology (ICT) solutions that guide traffic flows automatically -- directing cars faster to the nearest free parking space, which thereby reduces both fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Today, motorists looking for somewhere to park account for roughly 30 percent of city-center traffic. In the years ahead, this figure will be reduced significantly by means of large-scale use of connected parking guidance systems. By 2020, according to Navigant Research estimates, about 950,000 parking spaces all over the world will be equipped with this technology.

Some cities, such as Pisa, Italy, use parking guidance systems already. Looking for a parking space in the historic city center can be extremely difficult. Driving around the narrow streets is nerve-wracking for inexperienced motorists, and they can count themselves lucky if they find somewhere to park.

That is about to change. In the future, motorists will be guided around the city by a sensor-assisted parking guidance system that takes them straight to the nearest parking space. On the Piazza Carrara on the bank of the Arno River, not far from the Leaning Tower, Pisa and Deutsche Telekom are fitting out an initial 75 parking spaces with sensors in a pilot project. The sensors recognize whether a parking space is vacant or occupied, and relay this information to one of three data collectors. The data collector relays the information through the mobile network to the municipal IT infrastructure, where it is evaluated and the number of available parking spaces is sent to electronic notice boards. Motorists are spared the tiresome and time-consuming search for somewhere to park and the city gains a constantly updated overview of parking space utilization.

Need-oriented remote configuration of street lighting

Cities’ ecological balance sheets can also be improved by remote management of street lighting. Street lighting can account for more than 40 percent of cities’ and local authorities’ energy bills. Lawmakers have already taken action. In 2009, the European Union issued a directive to reduce the cost of street lighting -- requiring local authorities to replace approximately 100 million street lights by 2015. Some cities and local authorities are not relying solely on more efficient lamps, but they are also installing systems that enable them to control each and every lamp.

A Deutsche Telekom street lighting management solution links individual street lights with a data collector that communicates with the city’s server infrastructure via the mobile network. City employees use a Web portal to manage the city’s street lighting remotely.

To save energy, they set up cycles for lights to be switched on and off. The controls can also be automated. For example, if the system uses information received from brightness sensors in addition to time switches, it can adjust the brightness of lighting to the light conditions automatically. Along with  adopting LED lightbulbs, the solution will reduce their electricity bills by up to 70 percent and the cost of street lighting maintenance by up to 10 percent.

Solutions like these are already making cities smart. In the future, the ideal smart city will use information from a large number of different devices and technologies. To ensure that traffic lights, cars and parking spaces can understand one another, a common language is needed – a kind of Esperanto for machines. At the same time, data silos in the public sector must be abolished to enable a cross-departmental sharing of information. Only when the individual pieces of the puzzle are connected will the city really become smart. In this early phase, citizens, public authorities and private enterprises still have an opportunity to take part in the development process and make their mark on the city of the future. It is an opportunity they should put to good use.

Image credit: Flickr/simon_syon

Jürgen Hase is the vice president of the M2M Competence Center at Deutsche Telekom AG. He joined Deutsche Telekom AG in 2011 as head of the M2M Competence Center and has been in the telecommunications industry for more than 20 years. He is also Chairman of the M2M Alliance.

Sustainability skeptics often claim that companies invest in product sustainability primarily to “look good” in the eyes of consumers. By their logic, the only fiscal benefits of sustainability come from increased sales related to brand enhancement. To them, sustainability is just another form of brand marketing.

But they are wrong, according to a new report by sustainability consulting firm Pure Strategies. Companies that invest in product sustainability actually see the most benefit from reduced manufacturing costs -- ahead of brand enhancement and even risk reduction.

The Path to Product Sustainability is based on a quantitative survey of 100 global consumer product companies involved in product sustainability, as well as qualitative interviews with heads, directors and managers of sustainability at companies such as the Coca-Cola Co., Timberland, Seagate, RB and Henkel.

The report says “performing” companies recognize the importance of integrating sustainability into product development, as notably more performing companies will be further strengthening their sustainability focus during product development. This is a driving differentiator in product sustainability program performance.

Product sustainability goals are the most common best practice among performing companies that claim to have achieved widespread financial and organizational benefits from their programs, according to the report. A total 97 percent of these firms reported the existence of goals that guide programs to deliver on internal and external benefits.

Sustainability product assessments inform decisions for 90 percent of performing companies, compared to 61 percent of companies lower down the sustainability path. Supplier engagement, customer scorecards, and chemicals/materials of concern assessments were cited as the tools and approaches that deliver the most value.

Notably, no single company surveyed is expecting a decrease in funding in the next year for their product sustainability program. Quite the contrary; the product development process is expected to see a notable increase in sustainability focus over the next two years -- in particular during the early phases of concept and bench top/pilot scale development, the report finds.

Turns out that product sustainability programs are not the brainchild of marketers or even corporate outliers; corporate strategy and CEO vision were the most-cited internal drivers behind product sustainability programs. Retailer programs were the most-cited external drivers, and supplier engagement ranked as the most valuable product sustainability assessment approach.

“While it takes substantial organizational commitment to integrate sustainability into the core business effectively, there is a clear payback,” said Tim Greiner, managing director and cofounder of Pure Strategies. “By learning from these leaders, our study points to a product sustainability path that can propel a company from preparing—to progressing—to performing at the highest level of product sustainability.”

Image credit: Flickr Lawrence Whittemore

Based in San Francisco, Mike Hower is a writer, thinker and strategic communicator that revels in driving the conversation at the intersection of sustainability, social entrepreneurship, tech, politics and law. He has cultivated diverse experience working for the United States Congress in Washington, D.C., helping Silicon Valley startups with strategic communications and teaching in South America. Connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter (@mikehower)

Welcome to our series of interviews with leading female CSR practitioners where we are learning about what inspires these women and how they found their way to careers in sustainability. Read the rest of the series here.

TriplePundit: Briefly describe your role and responsibilities, and how many years you have been in the business.

Darby Hobbs: I am the CEO & Founder of SOCIAL3. I launched SOCIAL3, which fuses brand and sustainability principles through media production and presentation to cultivate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), impact investing and corporate social responsibility (CSR) story lines and align clients' vision and strategy with market engagement. In 2009, I became certified in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and am currently developing a sustainability rating to be used at point-of-sale for an investment product that will transform how investments are bought through an intermediary.

As a motivational speaker and presenter, I have participated in leading global platforms to educate and motivate senior managers in CSR/ESG/SRI and impact investing as well as brand, innovation, creative and visionary thinking.

Prior to launching SOCIAL3, I was a senior leader at Brown Brothers Harriman, Fidelity Investments, PNC Bank (PFPC), Financial Research Corporation, First Data Corporation and AMEX in marketing strategy, strategic and business planning, product development, public relations, communications and education.

3p: How has the sustainability program evolved at your company?

DH: I started SOCIAL3 and became engaged in sustainability and CSR when in 2008 I witnessed again the demise of the financial services industry that I not only built my career in, but watched declining brand engagement with consumers/investors. How could and why would investors trust Wall Street? Thus, I began to retool my talents and strengths towards creating a greater global good whereby investors could be passionately engaged to see their money work towards providing a better global platform for many to live and prosper without giving up on performance.

If a firm can create value, they can create trust. Trust then leads to initiating and sustaining brand engagement. According to Cone Communications (October, 2012), 69 percent of U.S. consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that talks publicly about its CSR results versus 31 percent who would purchase from a brand that talks about its CSR mission and purpose.

Telling the story that defines the value proposition to the marketplace is an art comprised of many facets. Applying Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) is not a standalone activity or a new fad. It represents a holistic way of thinking about how businesses operate in today’s global marketplace. It involves overlaying sustainability principles onto the operations of the business.

At SOCIAL3 our mission is to engage the financial services industry to do what is their mission – benefit the growth and prosperity of global society. Much has gone awry, as we have seen over the past years with the financial crisis and its roots. This has adversely impacted investors and other beneficiaries. Their trust in financial services has greatly diminished, but this is not a short-term episode. From my many years in financial services, I have seen a breadth of systemic issues building, and its because of this that I have sought to bridge the gap between capital markets, corporations, and consumers/investors so they mutually better understand each other and develop a shared value purpose in the global economy.

As a consumer making brand choices on a daily basis, having money working for them in a Greater Good capacity connects their Individual Impact Plan (IIP) more closely to what they value as a person - what is important to them and that they feel passionately about. The IIP is then rooted at the core of what defines them as a person - a symbiotic flow of passions, ideals, hopes, wishes, desires and financial returns. A mosaic for success.

3p: Tell us about someone (mentor, sponsor, friend, hero) who affected your sustainability journey, and how.

DH: There are so many that have embraced me in this area and have been so helpful in analyzing business ideas that I have had that it’s not just one person but a collection of professionals that have taken their time to share their passion and to help guide my thinking. Five years ago, when I received my CSR certification, I quickly began diagnosing ideas for bringing this thinking and that of sustainability to the financial services industry. From meeting with colleagues at Bloomberg, ThomsonReuters, Morningstar, Moody’s, Sustainalytics, 3Sisters Sustainable Management, PaxWorld, Trillium Asset Management and so many others. All spent time educating, listening and strategizing on what the best next steps could be for someone with my vision and passion for this space. Out of that came the direction for SOCIAL3 and the journey that I am on now to make a difference in the industry that had formed my career and be the bridge between the capital markets and the SRI/ESG/Impact investing community, showcasing and highlighting the corporations and investing programs that have the greatest impact globally.

3p: What is the best advice you have ever received?

DH: To listen to others versus always being the one talking. I have found this piece of advice extremely helpful as an entrepreneur to explore reactions to new ideas and to confirm business strategy and direction. Asking probing questions, learning from others and their experiences and applying this knowledge to form creative new solutions. As a creative, high-energy thinker these conversations are tremendously fruitful and enjoyable. Not only do I always learn, but also enjoy meeting new people and exciting both of our networks growing with such diverse and talented relationships. The professionals I have met in this space are extremely unique individuals and ones that I wish I had met twenty-five years ago.

3p: Can you share a recent accomplishment you are especially proud of?

DH: I forged a relationship with Asset.tv upon which we did seven educational/news driven videos in the area of CSR/SRI/ESG and Impact Investing. Now I am working with them to produce a monthly news show that I will anchor. Their platform reaches a global audience of asset owners (investors) and intermediaries as well as industry practitioners. I look forward to working with them and raising the level of education and communication of this area with the global community.

3p: If you had the power to make one major change at your company or in your industry, what would it be?

DH: The major change in the industry would be to transform how investments overall are distributed. This would be done by launching an easy-to-understand sustainability rating at point-of-sale for Financial Advisors (FAs) to use that rates the financial institution, not the portfolio, behind the investment offering. It provides a consumer-friendly indicator that FAs can easily explain as to why sustainability should be a key factor in their investment decision process. It re-engages investor trust, increases education and creates money flow into SRI/ESG/Impact investing options.

This topic is very relevant and timely given the need to educate and provide tools for FAs to use to engage investors. Much of the work done to date has been at the portfolio level in terms of ESG ratings, and portfolio managers use this information to construct their investment pools. The CSR reports that are created today are but one element that feed these ESG ratings with each research firm defining the parameters of their index. There are many groups focusing on slices of this type of activity, the GISR, GIIN, IRIS, B CORP, etc. It’s time for this great momentum to come together into much needed point-of-sale tools to allow the FA conversation to occur, engage the consumer to invest, rebuild trust into financial markets and raise net flows into SRI/ESG/Impact investments.

3p: Describe your perfect day.

DH: Taking a long walk on the beach, realizing the beauty in nature and breathing in the spirit of the ocean. Nothing revitalizes my creative brain more than the ocean and all the mystique that comes with each wave on the beach. It balances out all the other clutter that seeps into our minds and truly gets us to focus on what is important. Being one with nature, one with our fellow man and one with our thoughts towards creating a world that is guided towards a greater global good.

By Emily Bates

Apple's new employee-friendly ways under CEO Tim Cook are designed to keep employees happy and retain them, the Wall Street Journal reports. Taking a page out of Google’s book, Apple is exploring ways -- matching charitable donations or letting employees spend time on a favorite project -- that may not lead to a complete culture change immediately, but are a start.

Google, the master in developing innovative methods to motivate employees, believes motivating and engaging employees can work for anybody. In a post on the company's website, Laszlo Bock, Google’s senior vice president of People Operations, explains that openness and giving a voice to employees go a long way in motivating them.

Like Apple and Google, most organizations believe that keeping employees satisfied and motivated can lead to growth. But how do you do it? What works for Google or Apple may not necessarily work for your organization. The challenge lies in customizing solutions to fit your business.

Going beyond monetary perks: How to satisfy and motivate employees

Money can be a big motivator but, it’s not the most important one. Raises and bonuses can lead to temporary happiness, but this can also easily dissipate in the long run -- not to mention heavy investment without receiving much in return. Non-cash motivators can help build the future of an organization, a McKinsey study reports. Looking for ways to motivate your employees without blowing your budget? Here are five waysyou can raise your employees’ motivation levels to benefit both them as well as the organization.

1. Be an inspiring leader

Motivating your employees starts from you. Develop leadership that helps motivate employees in your organization. A Forbes article lists some ways that a leader can help motivate employees -- encourage your employees in such a way that they’ll be there with you even in the hard times!

Motivating your employees can also be as simple as saying "thank you" or appreciating an employee for a job well done. These few words can help differentiate between a satisfied and a disheartened employee, a blog post on the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) says.

2. Let your employees shine

Never curb the talents that your employees possess -- let them loose in their strong areas and see them shine. If that means designing flexible work schedules, having competitions, encouraging socialization among employees or starting a community service program -- do it, says Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, in a blog post on Inc.com.

Creating membership is also important. Encourage employees to follow outside interests, reports the Harvard Business Review, on things that actually motivate employees.

3. Provide training to sharpen skills

Being part of a learning culture is an important motivator for an employee. Corporate training can help fill the gap between lack of skills and better productivity after training needs are assessed. Although expensive at times, appropriate training should be viewed as an investment rather than a liability.

Time crunches and a need for increased flexibility have given rise to virtually-available corporate training courses. In the healthcare industry, online corporate training institutes like CareerStep conduct online technology training courses for employees to become proficient in Microsoft Office applications. Many of these online corporate training institutes can develop a customized program based on your organization’s training needs. With training available on the Web, it’s more convenient and accessible for employees.

4. Get more transparent

A closed-door policy will only discourage employees and may even lead to high attrition. Being transparent doesn’t mean revealing all confidential or sensitive data about your company, but developing a culture of approachable leaders and regular meetings helps in letting your employees know that they are valued. Create open communication, urges a WSJ guide on how to retain employees. Effective communication helps boost a company and save it in tough times, an eSkill blog post says.

5. Create a great workplace

Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos, an e-commerce business, believes in creating a corporate culture that caters to the happiness of employees and develops loyalty, a Forbes article reports. A recent Business Insider report shows Zappos doing away with a hierarchical management system and opting for a flatter organizational structure. Integrating employee and organization goals can also help encourage an employee. If an organization looks out for an employee’s interests, he or she is motivated to work harder.

Happy employees do not appear overnight -- sometimes it may take years for your efforts to bear fruit. But if your focus is on the bottom line and long-term growth of the organization, it’s important to focus on your most important asset. Innovation is the key when it comes to creating ways to engage employees. Have you got what it takes to create a happy team?

Image credit: Flickr/Glen Wright

By Alison Tickell

The creative industries are thriving. In 2012 they were worth £71.4 billion ($120 billion) to the U.K. – not bad for four years after one of the worst banking crises in its history. It’s a result that legitimizes the country’s claim to be world-leading, unlike most other parts of the U.K. economy.

Beyond the balance sheet the knock-on value generated by the creative industries has been noticed too. Creative innovation, excellence and Britain’s reputation for culture are key drivers of inward investment. The social impacts of cultural activity – education, skills, entrepreneurship, health, and community cohesion and regeneration – are ever-widening spirals of added value. Culture has emerged as a critical net generator of social and financial capital. It embodies value.

These positive externalities are the force behind an international movement to put the arts, heritage and creativity at the heart of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The recently signed Hangzhou Declaration predicts that cultural and creative enterprise will, in time, compare with the agrarian, industrial and service epochs that have been milestones in global economic history. Culture should be at the heart of policy. “Culture is our most powerful force for creativity and renewal," according to UNESCO’s director general, Irina Bokova. In her vision, it is “precisely what enables sustainability – as a source of strength, of values and social cohesion, self-esteem and participation."

The need to rethink economic models – prompted as much by climate change as by the financial crisis – has moved culture to center stage. This is because technological, political and economic solutions on their own will never provide complete answers. The ‘invisible hand’ of culture which got us here in the first place needs to get us somewhere else. The argument goes that by fostering certain values we can live sympathetically with the planet’s capacity to cope. This is contingent on the idea that culture can embody values that support a natural equilibrium. Can culture help to match our lifestyles to the resources we depend on?

This is an epic drama unfolding fast, and it challenges us personally and politically – as individuals, communities and countries. Only with acts of generosity, forgiveness, empathy and a general drenching in common sense will all this be peacefully resolved. (The irony is that nature, without us, does equilibrium rather well.) Cultural value rests on the premise that culture is a force for good, and that the experience of art which plunges us into other realms – of complexity, identity, community, joy, empathy – can help us solve commensurately bigger issues.

Sustainability, and not art per se, is forcing the convergence of these ideas, and so alongside the creative sector’s newfound confidence, the mood music is reflective and gritty, questioning the parameters of value, of growth as it’s currently defined, and whom and what it all serves. Artists are scrunching up the scripts and breaking away from norms in just the same way that circular thinking is turbo-charging design. Citizen science is pulling down ivory towers, and the ubiquity of the digisphere shows just how rapidly disruptive movements can change everything. This is the stuff of creativity in its purest, surest form, a new cultural age which articulates the experience of oneself in relation to other; interdependency and diversity; relativity and uncertainty; and the embodied state. This is what the Hangzhou Declaration is attempting to enshrine in the post-2015 Development Goals.

Julie’s Bicycle is poised at this interface. Working with arts practitioners from all over the world, we have felt the desirability, the fizz of culture’s contribution. There’s an easy link between culture and arts, creativity and sustainability, and some superb examples. There is also consensus that sustainability matters and is relevant to art and that creative partnerships can rapidly accelerate positive change. National and international clusters are creating the conditions for scaled, responsive leadership. We have gathered data on environmental impact from almost 2,000 organizations, representing a new value set which we can use to hot-house good ideas, reconfigure how we work together at scale and unite art with broader impact. The creative industries are finding new meaning as they collide with the pressures facing the rest of the world.

However, for a bunch of people who deal with imagination, we are not working nearly intelligently nor fast enough. Too many cultural leaders have yet to recognize how profound and relevant this is, and how total a response is needed; too many are still thinking that switching house lights to LEDs will do the trick. It won’t. We need to dig critically into our core before we can claim that culture has a part in this. Timing is everything. The sooner we muster the purpose, partnerships, data, debate, energy and critical mass of creative noise, the sooner we can construct a proper framework for value. Any vision of the future relies on creativity of the highest order, and culture should have a pivotal role.

Image credit: The Pregnant Messenger by David Buckland, Cape Farewell

Alison Tickell is CEO of Julie's Bicycle.

The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior was boarded yesterday by Dutch security agents in the port of Rotterdam, who broke down the door of the communications room and towed the ship to shore after it intercepted a Russian tanker carrying Arctic oil to Europe.

A total of 44 activists, including crew members onboard the Rainbow Warrior and activists in inflatables have been detained after they attempted to block the tanker from docking on the quayside. 

Commenting on the news, Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo said: “Our activists may be detained but this campaign is just getting started. The Arctic 30 spent two months in a Russian prison to shine a light on the madness of drilling for oil in the melting Arctic, and today they have shown real courage once again. We are hugely proud of their bravery and determination.

“From Russia to Rotterdam, our governments remain hopelessly dependent on oil, while the side effects of this addiction become more dangerous by the day. Breaking this chain is not just an environmental imperative, it is a matter of peace and security. The fight to stop Arctic oil drilling is one of the defining battles of our time. We will not be intimidated, and we will win.”

A group of 80 activists supported by the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior attempted to stop Gazprom’s oil tanker Mikhail Ulyanov from delivering the first ever oil from Arctic waters yesterday.

The protesters included the same oil 28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists who were imprisoned in Russia for protesting against last year. 

One group of activists painted “No Arctic Oil” in large letters on the hull of the “Mikhail Ulyanov” tanker, while other activists in inflatables tried to prevent the ship from mooring by putting themselves between the quay wall and the tanker.